This Month

This Month October 2018 - Sunday, 30 Sep 2018

Another month passes but the work load never reduces. I seem to finish one herbaceous area then remember another which needs attention before winter. Oh well which ever isn’t finished soon will just have to wait until late winter / early spring. I will say the same for any planting out although I would prefer to get it all out of pots and into the ground but doing one quick job usually entails doing half a dozen other jobs before I can get to the point of doing the one I had intended to achieve first.

I am not looking forward to winter, I am feeling cold at times already and the effort to get out into the garden gets harder but needs must! The autumn colours are mixed with some leaves already fallen, I do like the bright colours of my new Neoshirakia, I look forward to watching it grow and mature. Note to self - try to find time to take the camera for a walk around the garden. I must keep trying to remember to gather seeds for the Bromyard Seed Swap on the morning of Saturday 21st January in the Conquest Theatre.

In the fernery I have decided to dig out some due to that as the plants grow they look too much like a mass rather than seeing each distinct individual fern. I am not taking out any of the special ferns but will take out the native ones which I had left in amongst the others while they bulked out. I have ferns to take out in other places too, they soon seed around and muscle out other plants in the blink of an eye.

We have only done a small amount of the winter prune but once other jobs have been completed the pruning can have all the attention from about November to February.

It is time to order any vegetable seed we need, I had a quick look at the catalogue and there is nothing new which I want to try for next season. I am not ordering any flower seeds as I just do not have the time to attend to them. We are pleased with the potato crop with a good amount of large tubers and very little slug damage, we have decided to grow the same three varieties next year. They were easy to dig with the soil very friable.

I am hoping to find time to harvest some oak leaves as we recently opened a bottle of 2015 vintage recently to be reminded what a beautiful drink it is, golden nectar, very smooth with a hint of ginger.